Transforming data rE-use in ARCHaeology

Digital data curation for cultural heritage has reached a critical impasse. A central tension exists between the need to preserve cultural resources, and the dynamic potential for their use and re-use in democratic and just ways. In archaeology, much work has been done to make data Findable, Accessible and Interoperable (according to the FAIR Principles), but little is understood about whether data are Reusable–and by whom. TEtrARCHs argues the future of digital curation depends upon reconciling this divide, and aims to demonstrate that data optimised for ethical and emotive storytelling will provide the bridge between those who find or preserve heritage assets, and the diverse cross-European audiences for whom they might generate meaning. Through an interdisciplinary team of archaeological specialists, data scientists, and museum practitioners, collaborating with three key user groups–domain experts, creative practitioners, and memory institutions– TEtrARCHs will offer those who capture, curate and apply cultural heritage data with critically-aware workflows to prepare their data for enhanced re-use at every point in the data lifecycle (e.g., capture, mapping, lab-based analysis), then scenario-test such re-use through the dissemination of new narrative outputs authored by cross-European creative practitioners. The project embraces three scales of data collection in archaeology–landscape, site and artefact–exploring them via four increasingly ubiquitous technologies for data capture: airborne LiDAR, 3D scanning, digital field drawing and photography. Alongside novel workflows for field, post-excavation and archival practice, TEtrARCHs will produce the world’s first controlled vocabulary for cultural heritage storytelling, the first assessments of data reuse effectiveness following ISO Standard 25022: Measurement of Quality in Use, and the first best practice recommendations for trusted digital repositories to optimise archaeological data for re-use.